


It’s Not A Question Of Gender.

by LittleMewLugia (Lugianna)



Series: Oneshots and Snippets [4]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-17 05:32:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16089077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lugianna/pseuds/LittleMewLugia
Summary: When Sam got too old as a human to keep on living, the AllSpark remade him into a Cybertronian mech. As Sam is about to find out, gender on Cybertron was not the same as gender on Earth.





	It’s Not A Question Of Gender.

**Author's Note:**

> When Sam got too old as a human to keep on living, the AllSpark remade him into a Cybertronian mech. As Sam is about to find out, gender on Cybertron was not the same as gender on Earth.

It's Not A Question Of Gender.

Rating: M

Warnings: A bit cracky? Definitely slashy.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Paramount/Dreamworks and Hasbro/Takara, not me, which is fortunate for the characters…

It's Not A Question Of Gender.

 

Setting: About eighty years after the events of the ‘07 Movie.

 

" _Another_ health check?" groused Sam. "I had one three months ago. _And_ three months before that. And three months before _that_ one, too. Even as a geriatric human I never got that many check-ups."

"Ratchet just wants to make sure there are no lingering effects of your change from human to Cybertronian, that's all, Sam," Bumblebee explained as he walked down with him. "After this he'll probably drop them down to every six months or so for ten years, then annually for about fifty. Then, apart from after battles or if you've taken damage, you'll only be required once a vorn for a general once-over."

"Vorn?" asked Sam in confusion.

"I forgot, you're still getting used to our time-measurements. You've not lived full-time at the Base till now, you stayed with Mikaela till she died, and by then your children had their own lives. A vorn is eighty-three human years."

 

"I miss Mikaela - but then, I've got _you_ ," Sam said, cuddling Bumblebee. That, Sam reflected, was the upside of the AllSpark changing him at the point of death into one of its children. Not only did he not have to leave behind a grieving Bumblebee, but he could have a proper, full on, no-holds-barred Cybertronian relationship with his yellow friend, up to and including Sparkmerge.

Bumblebee hugged Sam back, he had no complaints at all with the AllSpark's work. Sam's mech-body was pleasing to the optics, not so different to Jazz's. Sam had even taken the same alt, a Pontiac Solstice, but he was a deep blue, to avoid confusion. Jazz had tried to encourage him to be silver - 'Think of the pranks we could play!' - but Sam had politely declined. Jazz might be immune to Prowl's sharp tongue, but Sam wasn't.

 

Sam huffed through his vents as they reached the medical bay.

"Okay, let's get this over with," he said as they walked in.

Ratchet's sharp audios picked up the complaint.

"Look Sam, it's just three scans and a few systems tweaks if needed. You're as bad as Prime, you should hear him when it's his time for a check up, you'd think I was doing a full dismantle and rebuild the way he carries on."

Sam couldn't help but smile.

"There are worse mechs I could emulate," he said innocently. "Like Ironhide?"

Ratchet's only reply was to snort and motion Sam to stand in the scanning cubicle. He stood in front of Sam, and began running the scans. Midway through the third scan, Sam saw Ratchet's optics widen and his metal brows crawl up towards where his hairline would be if he had hair.

"Can I run that scan again, Sam?" he asked.

"Uh, sure doc, is something wrong?" Sam asked, getting worried.

"Not _wrong_ , Sam," Ratchet said as he began repeating the scan. "Just…anomalous, different from your last readings, there's nothing _wrong_ , I just want to check something." For a few moments, the only sound was Ratchet's humming scanning-beam. Then Ratchet nodded and turned it off, and to Sam's surprise, beamed happily at him.

"I thought so!" He moved over and clapped Sam on the shoulder. "Come with me, Sam, and may I be the first to extend my congratulations."

 

"Congratulations?" Sam asked in confusion as Ratchet almost dragged him over to a storage cabinet. "Congratulations for what?"

"For you and Bumblebee," Ratchet said, his voice muffled as he bent down to rummage on the shelves. "Ah, I _knew_ I had some ready!" he said, straightening up with an armful of small forms, which he scattered on the worktop in front of Sam.

Sam stared at the empty and brightly-coloured sparkling bodies in growing confusion.

"Uh, Ratchet, what's going on, what's this about?"

"Well, are you going to choose one of those or do you have a custom build in mind?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm sorry, what do you _mean_?" said Sam, oblivious to the sudden look of stunned comprehension that was stealing over Bumblebee's face.

"Sam, your sparkling will need it's own body at sometime, but I guess you don't have to choose now, it's early days yet. You're carrying, Sam, you're carrying what I presume is yours and Bumblebee's sparkling."

Whatever Sam had expected, it wasn't _that_. His mouth dropped open and he stared at Ratchet. He was startled out of his stunned inactivity as, with a joyful squeal, Bumblebee threw his arms around Sam's waist, lifted him off his feet, and began to jump and spin around the room with him, humming on his plating and squealing in what Sam recognised as happiness. "We're having a sparkling!" the scout squealed in joy.

 

"Hey, hey, _hey_! 'Bee, put me down a moment buddy, please, I need to think!" he said. Bumblebee put him down, his optics dimming.

"Don't - didn't you _want_ this for us, Sam?" he said unhappily.

"It - its not that, Bee, I'm confused, give me a moment." He turned to Ratchet.

"Let me get this straight, okay? Are you trying to tell me I'm _pregnant_?"

"Well, I guess that's the human term, yes," Ratchet said. "There is a new extra Spark in your chest. When it's strong enough I can take it out and put it in one of these bodies. Cliffjumper and I crafted them all carefully, but you don't need to choose right now if you don't want to."

"But…I am a mech right, I'm _sure_ you said I was a mech?"

"Well, yes Sam, you're a mech, but I don't see what that has to do with our sparkling,” Bumblebee said, tentatively touching Sam's shoulder. It was at that moment that Ratchet's eyebrows shot up again.

"I do, Bumblebee," he said. "Sam is confused because with humans, there is a greater distinction than we have between mech and femme. With humans, and most, but not all, biological organisms in the animal subgroup, only the femme organisms are able to naturally carry."

 

He turned back to the confused Sam.

"Sam, the distinction between mech and femme on Cybertron was not the same as on Earth. 'Mech' and 'femme' relate only to the way the processors are coded, and the body shape," Ratchet told him. "There is no distinction between the sparks. Sometimes a youngling or sparkling will express a preference for a mech of femme frame, when they go into adult bodies they choose their form. That is why only adult frames are differentiated: sparkling and youngling bodies are not differentiated unless the youngling expresses an obvious wish, and the Creators possess the money, or materials and expertise, to commission or make a custom mech or femme youngling frame."

 

"But - Elita's twins, and Ironhide and Chromia's four young - didn't Chromia and Elita do the carrying?" Sam asked. "I'm sure I heard Bumblebee tell me about Elita carrying one time," Ratchet chuckled.

"Elita's twins? Elita had no twins, Sam, true twins arise from one spark splitting into two identical sparklets. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are true twins, but Optimus and Elita's pair are not twins, as we define the term."

"But - they are the same age, right?" Sam asked. "I'm sure 'Bee turned up one day to tell me that Optimus and Elita were now Creators to two sibling-sparklings. How are they not twins?"

"Because Elita and Optimus were _both_ carrying, one each, at the same time," Ratchet said. "The sparklings were taken out of them both on the same day. Having the same Creators, they are siblings, but they were carried by separate people, so they are not twins. As for Chromia and Ironhide's quartet, well, Ironhide carried three of those himself."

 

Sam sat down.

"I can't imagine Optimus and Ironhide as carriers," he said. "I won't - I mean, human women get big stomachs, and waddle, and want to wee a lot more often, or at least Mikaela did with all of ours. That won't happen to me, will it?"

"Of course not!" snorted Ratchet. "Sparks are just energy, you might occasionally feel warmer to the touch than usual. And before you ask, decanting the Sparkling into its own body won't hurt, either. Carrying isn't really much like human pregnancy and childbirth at all."

"This isn't how I imagined it would be, I guess I just assumed that the birds and the bees was the same for everyone." Sam said.

"The birds and the bees aren't Cybertronian, Sam." Ratchet explained with a smile. "With our kind, who carries is not just a question of gender."

"So what is it that decides who carries?" Sam asked

"Nobody knows, really, Sam," Ratchet said. "You get some, like Optimus and Elita, where both partners get with Spark at about the same time. Sometimes it is a toss-up, one or the other will. Then sometimes it's one partner who consistently carries, and we still don't know why. Many of our knowledge of Cybertronian natural reproduction was lost once the AllSpark began to be widely used. Sometimes, considering the subject became taboo, considered sacrilegious, I wonder if the loss was deliberate."

 

Sam stood again.

"Well, I guess I knew being an Autobot would be radically different from being a human," Sam said, wandering back over to the assorted sparkling frames. "I just never realised just how different. I guess I still have a lot to learn." He beckoned over Bumblebee. "By the way, I’m thrilled, very happy about this, so don’t worry. So, which one do you think we should choose for our sparkling?" he asked the yellow scout.

 

Bumblebee's arm extended and his finger pointed to a blue and yellow frame near the edge.

"That one!" Bumblebee said.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone familiar with my stories will know that I usually write stories where there is differentiation like humans, between mech and femme genders. Just for the fun aspect, I set this in a version of the TF-verse where there is not. Sam's reaction to finding out he's pregnant? Too priceless to not write it.  
> Surprise


End file.
